The Venezuelan opposition will elect its presidential candidate on October 22

The Venezuelan opposition will choose the next October 22 to the candidate who will face chavismo in the presidential elections – scheduled for 2024 on a date yet to be defined -, announced this Wednesday the National Primary Commission (CNP), the entity which will govern the process.

The President of the NPC, Jesus Maria Casaldeclared, during the act of presentation of the date and the calendar, that “from this moment” there must be political and civic unity, and called on the “protagonists” of this process to continue the “struggle ” for change, through internal opposition elections.

The long-awaited date came nine months after several opposition political parties announced the creation of a coalition that will try, once again, to end the so-called bolivarian revolutionin power since 1999.

There NOC had planned that he was working on the full timeline for the process, which includes deadlines campaign and periods for registration of applications, with a view to June 25, as a possible voting day, although they specified that this date was not closed and depended on various factors, in particular the consensus between the political forces. Finally, it was decided to hold the primary on October 22.

Venezuelan opponents Juan Guaido there Henrique Capriles Radonsky They had launched an appeal on Tuesday to support the primary process in which a candidate who will face chavismo will be elected.

“Tomorrow (for today) the date of the primaries is announced, it is an achievement of the Venezuelans (…) from tomorrow it is you (citizens) who have the power to decide and thus to unify at Venezuela again and, once and for all, no more infighting. Let’s support this primary which means the union of allGuaidó said.

Similarly, Capriles asserted that The primary elections will be a process of consultation so that next year Venezuelans can “choose freely”.

“We Venezuelans want to vote freely and end up with the full exercise of a right that we all haveevery Venezuelan has the opportunity to exercise their right to vote and we want that vote to be counted and that in Venezuela we can talk about free and competitive elections,” he added.

For his part, the anti-Chavista David Smolansky insisted that Venezuelans abroad can participate in the primary elections.

“I cannot conceive of primary elections where Venezuelan migrants and refugees cannot vote. Of the 7.1 million expelled by the dictatorship, at least 4.3 million are of voting age,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

Meanwhile, the opponent Andres Velazquez rejected this Sunday the technical support of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela in the internal anti-chavismo primaries.

“We now reject that in the primary of the presidential candidate of democratic factors, which is an internal process, the CNE does not intervene in any way as the electoral arm of the regime“said Velásquez, quoted in a press release from his team.

The leader of La Causa R, who recently presented his candidacy in these opposition elections, assured that “the intervention of the CNE in the internal process is not justified”, and judged that “No Venezuelan will want to participate in this process if it continues,” the electoral power said..

Last Friday, the CNE indicated that it had agreed to form a technical commission Beside the unitary platform to determine the extent of their possible assistance in the opposition primary elections.

News in development